Hidden Gems: Meet Tyler DeLeo of Goal Pediatric Orthotics

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler DeLeo.

Hi Tyler, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story started with a family friend who lost his leg due to bone cancer when he was 14 years old. I was close with him and his family and a supporter and observer of this young man who went from being very active, playing rugby and other sports, to being pretty down after receiving the diagnosis of osteosarcoma in his ankle and being immediately scheduled for amputation and chemo therapy, it rocked his world and his families world. He went through chemo and physical therapy and started working his way back physically and mentally. As a community we helped raise funds so that he could get a prosthesis. Once he received his prosthetic leg he started slowly making his way back to walking again, and then eventually running, then hiking, biking etc… and now is a commercial scuba diver. Watching him go through this recovery process and seeing him from where I knew him before his amputation to seeing him slowly gain his life back was inspiring and fascinating to me so I reached out to the prosthetist that made his prosthetic leg and started volunteering at his clinic. From there I fell in love with the field of Orthotics and Prosthetics, I began working at a clinic as a technician making devices by hand while I applied to graduate school. I was accepted and attended the Baylor College of Medicine Orthotics and Prosthetics Program. During residency I realized how much I loved working with kids and knew that I wanted to focus my career in pediatrics.

I began my professional career in Texas working for a pediatric clinic and then about 6 years ago one of my good friends and now business partner had an idea to start his own pediatric clinic in Utah where Goal Pediatric Orthotics was born. About 4 years ago I decided to leave Texas and team up with him and start Goal Pediatric Orthotics in Arizona. Our mission is to help as many children as we can to achieve their GOALs and reach their full potential. We have grown quicker than expected, nearly doubling each year we have been in business and now cover the entire valley from Surprise to Cave Creek, and south to Maricopa and San Tan Valley.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Personally and as a business we have been very fortunate to be where we are at and to be able to help as many kids as we have been able to, it has taken a tremendous amount of effort and struggle. Goal was bootstrapped from the beginning which required sacrifice and delayed gratification to get it off the ground and to the more sustainable place we are today, though we are still young and continuing to build and improve every day.

One of the biggest hurdles to starting a clinic in our field is health insurance contracts. Being a smaller, private company, we do not have the leverage that some of the larger companies have. Initially we were able to purchase a few of the contracts we needed, but we still had some gaps in coverage. One of the main medicaid, also called AHCCCS contracts in Arizona, we had tried for several years to obtain with a denial every year stating that they did not have any gaps in their coverage network and there was no need for our services.

Well last year we were continuing to grow and we really needed this contract to be able to continue to service the patients and referrals we were receiving so we revamped our application, including testimonials from parents, doctors and therapists all around the valley, we sent in our contract application and after an initial denial, we kept persisting and found a few areas we could add value to their network of providers with our mobile service and were miraculously able to obtain the contract that we had been needing. Our contracting efforts continue we now have about 90% of the contracts needed to continue serving our patients!

We’ve been impressed with Goal Pediatric Orthotics, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Goal Pediatric Orthotics we help kids with various disabilities to be able to achieve their goals and developmental milestones and reach their full potential. We are a specialized pediatric clinic providing custom medical equipment for children including leg braces, trunk supports, arm braces and even cranial helmets for babies. Our model was designed to maximize collaboration with the patient, their family, their referring physical or occupational therapist, doctor or specialist and anyone else involved in their care. We have office in the East and West Valley as well as North Phoenix and a unique aspect of our business is our mobile service which allows us to work with kids in their homes, especially if they are medically fragile, we can see them at their physical therapy clinic or at school again to maximize collaboration. When we see patients at our clinic we always reach out to the referring doctor or therapist to discuss the plan of care collaboratively.

The amazing families and kiddos that we get to work with have much on their plate caring for these children with special needs and go to great lengths to take them to many appointments every week for therapy, to see specialists, obtain medications, etc… and so we feel if we can make their life easier and treat them with kindness and respect, that can make this aspect of their lives a positive which can go a long way.

When we see a patient at our office or on the road we wanted to come up with a way to relate to kids and to allow kids to just be kids. So Dave, our founder, came up with the soccer theme at our clinic and every kiddo we see we provide a little soccer ball and we get on the floor with them to play and help them feel comfortable just being a kid, then we sit back and are able to observe how they move and function and discuss with the family and health care team, what kind of device might be best to help them achieve their goals.

The three stars in our logo are ascending in size and represent our values which are:
Learn from the Past
Live Fully in the Present
Look Brightly to the Future

The largest star in the logo representing the future as we feel that is the potential of these kids that we get to work with and we are incredibly blessed to get to play a small role in their life.

We strive to support the community of patients that we work with by supporting/sponsoring events and organizations like Mariah’s Miracle, The Norah Foundation, Cure SMA, The Down Syndrome Network of Arizona, Heal DMD, United Cerebral Palsy, The Cerebral Palsy Symposium with Phoenix Children’s Hospital, as well as what we like to call our ‘Goal One Love’ outreach program providing orthotics for children in Jamaica!

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Dave Patterson: Founder of Goal Pediatric Orthotics, He is one of the most humble, hard working, selfless people that you will meet who started Goal with nothing but a Prius and a few hand tools but he has a passion for helping others and empowering them to realize their goals and dreams.
There are so many other amazing people on our team from Quinn, our financial expert who is as generous and genuine as they come. Samantha is our office manager and the heart and soul of our Arizona team! We have an amazing team of clinicians including Ian, Dallin and Amy. There are so many other friends and mentors that have helped me get to where I am.

Pricing:

• We are in network with most private insurance plans as well as most AHCCCS (medicaid) plans

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goalpediatrics.com
• Instagram: @goalpediatrics
• Facebook: Goal Pediatrics
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerdeleo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoalPediatrics